Late Irish News

May 17, 1991|By Frank O`Neill.

CHICAGO — Syndicated columnist William Pfaff on April 21 so cunningly distorts the Anglo-Irish conflict that his column reads like a British disinformation handout (``Drawing the poison from the wounds of Northern Ireland``). Doesn`t reportage on life-and-death issues have to meet some minimal standard of truth? Is it really OK to portray British forces, who have committed most of the terrorist murders in northeastern Ireland, as ``trying to enforce order?`` Why do American journalists portray Britain as trying to end anti-Catholic job discrimination in northeastern Ireland while it is fiercest in government offices there and is embedded into the very core of British law?

From 1690 to this very day, anti-Catholic legislation has controlled access to the top British job, that of monarch. Wouldn`t this vicious anti-Catholic law be long-since abolished had our news media informed Americans of its existence? Why do our news media fail to inform Americans about the Anglo-Irish conflict as fueled by this obscene law?

The MaGuire family, the Winchester Three, the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six were for seventeen years until recently among the hundreds of Irish innocents in British prisons. Why, only after some of these innocents are finally released and justice is no longer served by covering them, do Mr. Pfaff and the rest of our news media start to do so?